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The Binet-Simon Measuring Scale for 

Intelligence: Some Criticisms and 

Suggestions 



In 1908, the French psychologists Binet and Simon published 
their second and most famous series of tests for the diagnosis 
of the grade of intelligence of children. This series, translated 
and adapted for American use by Goddard and Whipple, has 
won for itself widespread acceptance and increasing application 
by those interested in the education of exceptional children. 

This widespread practical application has demonstrated that 
in various minor respects the tests, originally developed for use 
with French children, are ill adapted to the needs of Americans, 
and, as a result, many workers are at present engaged in trying 
out minor variations in the hope of improving the series. In 
other words, there is general agreement that the measuring instru- 
ment is based on correct principles, and constructed on the right 
plan, but that it needs minor adjustments to make it work 
smoothly under new conditions. 

The object of this article is to present considerations which 
lead the writer to believe that what we must have is a new instru- 
ment rather than the readjustment of the old; a new instrument 
utilizing what is good in the old, but largely planned on different 
principles and constructed along new lines. 

The Binet-Simon tests consist of a series of fifty-six tasks 
and questions adapted to the capabilities of normal children of 
from three to thirteen years of age, and their purpose is to pro- 
vide a measuring scale whereby the intellectual performance of 
the child tested may be compared with that of the average nor- 
mal child of the same age. 

This arrangement of the tests on an age scale constitutes 
the feature of greatest value in the Binet-Simon series, and 
accounts for the enthusiastic reception accorded them immedi- 
ately upon their publication. It enables the examiner to test 

1 



a seven-year-old child, for example, and to discover that his 
mental development is two years in arrears if he is able to pass 
successfully only the tests assigned for children five years of age 
and younger. This method provides for the first time a definite 
and universally intelligible scale by which to measure the per- 
formance of the subject. 

A general idea of the character of the tests for each year may 
be gained from the following table, which only roughly indicates 
the nature of the tasks and questions: — 



Three Years 
i Where 



your nose, eyes, 



is 
mouth? 

2 Repetition of sentences 

3 Repetition of numbers 

4 Describing pictures 

5 Name of family 



Four Years 



6 Sex of child 

7 Naming familiar objects 

8 Repetition of figures 

9 Comparison of lines 



Five Years 



io Comparison of weights 

1 1 Copying square 

12 Making rectangle with 

vided card 

13 Counting four cents 



di- 



Six Years 



14 Indicating right hand, left 

ear 

15 Repetition of sentence 

16 Esthetic comparison 

17 Definition of objects 

18 Execution of triple order 

19 Own age 

20 Knowing morning and after- 

noon 



Seven Years 



21 Unfinished picture 

22 Number of fingers 

23 Writing from copy 

24 Copying a diamond 

25 Repetition of figures 

26 Description of pictures 

27 Counting thirteen cents 

28 Naming four common coins 



Eight Years 

29 Reading and report 

30 Counting money 

31 Naming four colors 

32 Counting backwards 

33 Writing from dictation 

34 Comparing objects from 

memory 

Nine Years 

35 Knowing the date, day, 

month, day of month, and 
year 

36 Reciting days of week 

37 Making change 

38 Definition of familiar ob- 

jects 

39 Reading and report 

40 Arrangement of weights 

Ten Years 

41 Reciting months of year 

42 Naming nine pieces of money 

43 Sentence building 

44 Problem questions 

Eleven Years 

45 Detecting absurd statements 

46 Sentence building 

47 Naming sixty words in three 

minutes 

48 Defining abstract terms 

49 Sentence building 

Twelve Years 

50 Repetition of figures 

51 Rhymes 

52 Repetition of sentence 

53 Problem questions 

Thirteen Years 

54 Drawing from design cut in 

paper 

55 Describing figure made from 

reversed triangle 

56 Differences between abstract 

terms. 



These tests are designed to measure native ability, not 
scholastic attainment. They aim to provide the investigator 
with an instrument which will enable him to form a trustworthy 
estimate of the child's capacity for adapting himself to his social 
environment, and so are designed with special reference to evalu- 
ating his judgment, good sense, initiative, and adaptability. 

Their value as a measure of this kind of intellectual capacity 
depends on whether or not they really test the qualities they 
aim to test and with what degree of accuracy. It is the opinion 
of the writer that they may be greatly improved in both respects. 
His criticisms fall under five general heads: — 

I. The tests predominantly reflect the child's ability to 
use words fluently, and only in small measure his 
ability to do acts. 
II. Five of them depend on the child's recent environmental 
experience. 

III. Seven depend on his ability to read or write. 

IV. Too great weight is given to tests of ability to repeat 

words and numbers. 
V. Too great weight is given to "puzzle tests." 
VI. Unreasonable emphasis is given to tests of ability to 
define abstract terms. 

I. Talking Versus Doing 

The first and most serious criticism is that the ability pre- 
dominantly measured by these tests is the child's ability to use 
words fluently, and that this gives a warped and partial measure 
of his real degree of intelligence. The keynote of this criticism 
is found in the .tests themselves, among the questions assigned 
for ten-year-old children, where the child is asked, "Why should 
you judge a person by what he does rather than by what he says?" 

A correct answer to this question would be that we should 
judge a person by his acts rather than by his words, because his 
acts are accurate indicators of what he really is, whereas his words 
may have only the slightest relation to his real self. This prin- 
ciple is reflected in the proverbs and literature of every age, 
and of all peoples. It is so axiomatic that Binet and Simon 
have rightly assumed that it forms a part of the knowledge of 
every normal ten-year-old child. Nevertheless, by careful 
count, two-thirds of their tests are tests of the child's ability to 
use words, and only one-third indicate his ability to act. The 



assumption seems to be that native ability to do can be tested 
by testing the ability to use words about doing. 

The fallacy of this assumption is acutely appreciated by the 
school superintendent who is forced to select principals and 
teachers on the basis of examinations, and then sadly observes 
the striking contrast between the way in which the candidates 
describe how they would teach and administer, and the way in 
which they actually succeed in teaching and administering. 
Federal, state and municipal officials, whose field and office 
forces are selected on the basis of examinations, are equally alive 
to similar common discrepancies between words and deeds. 

The root of the fallacy is the fundamental fact that the moti- 
vating stimuli which shape one's actions in coping with a real 
problem in life are invariably multiple and complex, whereas 
those which determine his answer to a hypothetical question are 
simple, few, and different in quality. 

An illustration of this may be secured by putting to a number 
of intelligent adults of demonstrated practical ability the ques- 
tions assigned to ten-year-old children in the tests under con- 
sideration. One of these reads, "What ought one to do before 
taking part in an important affair?" The writer's experience 
in putting this question to business men is not encouraging. A 
few answers have been received, ranging from "Take a bath", 
and, "Put on your best clothes", to "Take some money from the 
bank" and "Transfer your property to your wife " ; but in general 
those questioned reply with energetic expressions of short and 
ugly words and emphatic protestations that the question is 
unanswerable. 

Again, these problem-questions overlook the importance of 
habit and of the emotions in influencing action. The ten-year- 
old child or the adult of indifferent mental ability may have a 
ready answer to the questions "What is the thing to do if you 
find out that your house is on fire?" "What ought one to do 
when he has been struck by a playmate who did not do it on 
purpose?" and, "What would you do if you were punished when 
you did not deserve it?" But the child or adult who does just 
the right thing when he has been struck by another, discovers 
that his house is on fire, or suffers undeserved punishment, 
thereby demonstrates a quality and degree of native ability to 
which few indeed among us may hope to attain. 



A still further objection is that the tests assume an agree- 
ment between verbal equality and real equality which seldom 
exists. The blood-curdling series of tests put to eleven-year-old 
children to discover their ability to detect absurdities well 
illustrates this defect. The statement 

"There was found in the park today the body of an 
unfortunate young girl, frightfully mutilated, and 
chopped into eighteen pieces. It is thought that she 
committed suicide." 

may well be a pleasant and entertaining narrative to a normal 
and somewhat phlegmatic child, but constitutes a serious nervous 
shock to his more sensitive companion. In the same statement 
read to both children there is verbal equality; in their psychical 
import there may be the most serious inequality. 

II. Recent Environmental Experience 
Five tests depend in high degree on the child's recent environ- 
mental experience. These are the tests relating to time and to 
money. Some of them are "doing" tests, and some of them 
"saying" ones. The assumption with regard to the "time" 
questions is that intelligent children, irrespective of school train- 
ing, should be able to name the day of the week, the month, the 
day of the month, the year, etc. Experiment among business 
and professional men shows that they are frequently unable to 
supply these data off-hand unless the nature of their business 
requires constant reference to them. Probably every reader will 
recall that it requires only three or four days of a camping trip 
or an ocean voyage to lose track of the days of the week and the 
days of the month, and that a distinct shock is experienced when 
some one mentions the fact that "today is Sunday." 

The writer recalls serving as a member of a Federal jury in 
the West Indies trying smuggling cases, in which the masters 
of ocean-going trading sloops were the accused. In these cases 
it was proved beyond any question that these sloop captains 
were not only illiterate, but that they were absolutely ignorant 
of the names of the months and did not keep track of the days of 
the week, with the exception of the Sundays. Nevertheless, 
these men were distinctly able and intelligent, spoke several 
languages, navigated dangerous waters, and carried cargoes of 
considerable value. In the writer's opinion, the ability to name 



off-hand the day of the week and of the month is governed al- 
most entirely by daily work and very little by native ability. 

A similar objection, but one probably less serious, arises in 
connection with those questions having to do with money and 
making change. These again are abilities largely governed b}' 
environment. The ability of a child of ten years to recognize 
and name at sight a quarter, fifty-cent piece, a five dollar bill 
and a ten-dollar bill, depends not on native ability but rather 
on whether or not he is accustomed to see, have, handle or spend 
these pieces of money. 

III. Ability to Read and Write 
Seven tests depend on the subject's ability to read and write, 
which commonly depends on the amount and kind of school 
experience he has had, and may be only slightly related to his 
native ability. 

IV. Repetition of Words and Numbers 
The repetition of words and numbers has an even more re- 
mote relation to the ability to cope with the problems of life, 
and yet one-seventh of the tests are of this sort. The simpler 
of them can be successfully passed by a gifted parrot; the more 
difficult ones recently proved beyond the ability of a university 
professor tested by the writer. 

V. Puzzle Tests 

Several of the tests seem best designated as "puzzle tests" 
and appear to have strikingly little relation to anything the 
normal person has to do in the ordinary day's work. Such a one 
is the demand that the eight-year-old child count backwards 
from twenty. Counting backwards is one of the rarest things 
most people are called upon to do and yet the proposal has 
recently been seriously made that these present tests be "im- 
proved" by requiring the subject to recite the names of the 
months from December back to January instead of forward from 
January to December. To teach children to recite backwards 
lists of words that have a normal fixed order is educationally 
vicious. To include such a requirement in tests of intellectual 
ability is at least questionable. 

Another "puzzle test" for thirteen-year-old children seems 



as foreign to every day experience as the foregoing. It uses for 
material a visiting card cut along the diagonal and asks the child 
to describe the resulting shape if one of the triangles were turned 
about and placed so that its short leg was on the other hypot- 
enuse and its right angle at the smaller of the two acute angles. 
So far the writer has failed to find any one able to describe the 
resulting shape. 

VI. Abstract Terms 
Definitions of abstract terms and expressions of the difference 
between abstract words of similar sound but different meaning 
constitute the last class of tests to be here considered. The 
first objection to these is that philosophers are almost the only 
people who think in abstractions, and the second objection is 
that words of peculiarly difficult character have been chosen. 
Let the reader himself try the eleven-year-old test which demands 
definitions of Charity, Justice, and Goodness. To pass he must 
give two good definitions. Then let him try the thirteen-year- 
old tests and tell the difference between 

Pleasure and Honor 
Evolution and Revolution 
Event and Advent 
Poverty and Misery 
Pride and Pretension. 

The third of these pairs is a good one to try on your friends. 
If not satisfied with their explanations recourse may be had to the 
Standard Dictionary where one will be rewarded by finding that 
an advent is the coming of an event, but just what the difference 
between them is remains undiscovered. 

To sum up the case to this point: Two-thirds of the Binet- 
Simon tests are tests of the child's ability to use words, and only 
one- third tests of his ability to do acts. Among the reasons why 
certain of the tests fall short of providing satisfactory criteria 
for the judging of native ability are the following: 

1. They overlook the fundamental difference between the 
multiple and complex stimuli which contribute to the moti- 
vating impulse in coping with real problems and the few and 
simple ones entering as factors in answering questions or 
obeying commands. 

2. The importance of the emotions and habit in influenc- 
ing action is disregarded. 

3. Real equality is attributed to verbal equality. 



8 

4- Ability to answer many of the questions depends on the 
child's daily environmental experiences which differ radically 
among different children. 

5. Ability to meet the requirements of several of the tests 
depends directly on the excellence of the child's schooling. 

6. Several tests depend on the mere ability to repeat words 
and numbers. 

7. Counting backwards and solving puzzles constitute 
several tests. 

8. Several tests turn on the ability to express in words 
comprehension of difficult, abstract terms. 



There are two important sets of evidence in favor of the tests, 
and they are both good in the sense that they constitute ' ■ prag- 
matic" arguments showing that the tests u work" successfully 
when applied. In the first place these tests have won rapid and 
widespread use and endorsement among hundreds of practical 
teachers and workers with children, whereas all previous tests 
of intelligence have been practically restricted in use to workers 
in psychological laboratories. 

In the writer's opinion the reason for this has been pointed 
out by Terman of Leland Stanford, Jr., University, who calls 
attention to the fact that here for the first time we have a set of 
tests arranged with reference to steps on a scale that is constant 
and universally understood. Everyone has a fairly accurate 
concept of what is meant when one says that a given child shows 
intelligence equal to that of a ten-year-old normal child. We 
have had graded tests before but no one knew what the steps on 
the scale meant in terms of anything else, or where the lower end 
began or how far the upper end reached. This application of the 
tests to a definite, universally understood scale constitutes the 
great contribution of Binet and Simon and it is so important a 
contribution that its excellence outweighs the shortcomings of the 
tests themselves. 

The second set of evidence consists of the records of applying 
the tests to large numbers of normal school children with the 
result that the distribution of the children into retarded, normal, 
and advanced groups corresponds fairly well with what is termed 
in statistics the normal frequency distribution. Such studies 
have been made by Binet and Simon in France with 203 normal 
children and by Goddard in this country with 1547 children. In 
both cases the results showed about such a distribution of re- 



tarded, normal, and advanced children as the theory of normal 
frequency distribution tells us that we should find, and in both 
cases the results have been widely cited as constituting a scien- 
tific demonstration of the correctness of the tests in so far as their 
degree of difficulty is concerned. 

Unfortunately this conclusion is hardly justified by the results 
of the investigations as made public, for the reason that we have 
only the mass figures for the entire group tested and not the 
figures showing the results for children of each age. This process 
hides the details from view and if, as many workers report, the 
tests for the youngest children are too easy and those for the 
oldest ones too hard, these important facts are concealed by put- 
ting all the results for all the ages together. 

How this works is illustrated by comparing the results ob- 
tained by Goddard in his application of the Binet-Simon tests 
to 1547 normal school children with data recently gathered by the 
writer showing the progress of children in the public elementary 
schools of twenty-eight cities. In the accompanying diagram 
the solid line represents the distribution of the children tested 
by Goddard according to the tests showing them to be normal, 
one year behind, one year ahead, two years behind, two years 
ahead, etc. The dotted line is based on data showing how long 
it has taken 14,762 children in twenty-eight American cities to 
complete the work of seven grades. Those who have done so 
in seven years are rated as normal; those who have taken six 
years, as one year ahead in progress; those taking eight years, 
as one year behind, etc. To secure a proper basis of comparison 
both the Goddard data and the writer's have been reduced to 
relative figures and are presented on the basis of 1000 cases. 

The significant feature of the diagram is that the curves are 
closely similar. If the solid curve constitutes a scientific demon- 
stration of the correctness of the Binet tests, then it may fairly 
be argued that the dotted one constitutes a scientific demonstra- 
tion that the public school systems and courses of study of these 
cities are correctly adjusted to the abilities of their pupils; neither 
too hard nor too easy, but almost exactly right. If this were 
true there would be far less need for securing a measuring scale 
of intelligence than there undoubtedly is, for in our public school 
system we should have just such a scale, scientifically correct 
and already at hand. 



10 

The fact is, however, that the progress figures from the 
twenty-eight cities referred to show great variations between 
different grades and localities, and it is only by combining the 
figures for all the cities that the nearly normal curve shown is 
secured. A similar comparison could easily be made with the 
figures showing the results of the tests made by Binet and Simon 
in France. Indeed, it so happens that this curve almost exactly 
coincides with that showing the progress of the children in the 
eight grades of Bayonne, New Jersey, and here again the almost 
normal curve disappears when the data are presented by separate 
grades. 




Distribution curves showing variations from normal of 1547 children 
tested by the Binet-Simon scale (solid line) and 14,762 children in 28 cities 
rated by their progress through seven grades (dotted line). Curves based 
on relative figures showing distribution of 1000 cases of each kind. 

In presenting the foregoing considerations the writer does not 
wish to appear as an antagonist of the Binet-Simon Measuring 
Scale for Intelligence, for he is not. He does wish to sound a 
note of warning against accepting it in its present form as 
final and satisfactory. What is here set down is the result of 



II 

his own attempts to discover ways in which they may be im- 
proved, together with ideas secured through lengthy discussions 
of their application with Mrs. Louise Stevens Bryant of the 
Psychological Clinic of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Binet and Simon have done a great and lasting service for the 
cause of childhood in basing their tests on a definite scale. The 
present situation offers a splendid opportunity to psychologists, 
teachers, and mothers to observe, discover, and record things 
which normal children do and know at each age. Work of this 
sort conducted by a large number of observers and co-ordinated 
by some central agency or agencies would soon give us a series of 
tests retaining all the good of the present series and replacing 
present tests wherever experiment and observation show better 
ones can be found. 

Above all let us steadfastly bear in mind that all measuring 
instruments must be judged for two qualities; first, what they 
measure, and, secondly, how accurately they measure it. The 
fact that the Binet-Simon tests are more or less accurately ad- 
justed to the normal capabilities of the children of each age is 
only one, and the less important, criterion. The problem of 
paramount importance is whether or not they really measure 
native ability, and if they fall short, how we may develop a 
series of tests that will measure it. 



Some Publications of the Department of Child 
Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation 

Medical Inspection of Schools. Luther H. Gulick, M.D., 

and Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 276 pp. Price, postpaid, 

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Gives in convenient form information about the historical, 

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Laggards in our Schools. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 236 pp. 

Price, postpaid, $1.50. Charities Publication Committee, 
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A study of the over-age child, the child who repeats grades, 
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are set forth in nearly one hundred tables. Third edition. 

Wider Use of the School Plant. Clarence Arthur Perry. In- 
troduction by Luther H. Gulick, M.D. 423 pp. Price, 
postpaid, $1.25. Charities Publication Committee, 105 
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All the activities, from evening schools to social centers, now 
carried on after school hours in school buildings are described 
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to cost, development, and the social amelioration which they are 
effecting. Fully illustrated and helpfully indexed. Second 
edition. 

Seven Great Foundations. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 79 
pp. Price, postpaid, 35 cents. Department of Child 
Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation, 400 Metropolitan Tower, 
New York City. 
Information concerning the origin, purposes, activities and 
history of the following foundations: Peabody Education Fund, 
John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedman, Carnegie 
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Open Air Schools. Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 171 pp. Price 

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This volume gives the important and significant American 
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food, cost, administration, etc. It has more than 70 pages of 
illustrations and diagrams. Bibliography. 

12 



DEC 16 1911 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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